Ephraim Buchwald
Ephraim Buchwald is an influential
Orthodox rabbi based in
New York City. He was ordained at
Yeshiva University, where he was a student of Rabbi Dr.
Joseph Soloveitchik.
Rabbi Buchwald served for 15 years (beginning
1973) as the Director of Education at the
Modern Orthodox Lincoln Square Synagogue in
Manhattan, New York City, and established Lincoln Square's acclaimed Jewish outreach program, where he continues to serve as the rabbi of the beginners service.
In October,
1987, Rabbi Buchwald founded the
National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP), a non-denominational organization which organizes classes at thousands of locations throughout North America.
NJOP sponsors Shabbat Across America/Canada and Read Hebrew America/Canada campaigns, establishes beginners services and offers the Turn Friday Night into Shabbat, Passover Across America, and Sukkot Across America programs, as well as free "Crash Courses" in
Hebrew Reading, Basic
Judaism, and Jewish History. These programs are now offered at more than 3,650 locations across
North America, and in 30 countries worldwide. Through these innovative programs and an ambitious Jewish consciousness raising advertising campaigns, NJOP claims to have reached more than 920,000 North American Jews and "engaged them in Jewish life".
Rabbi Buchwald is the founding and Honorary President of the
Association of Jewish Outreach Programs (AJOP) (previously known as the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals), which was established in
1988. Both NJOP and AJOP were founded by multi-million dollar grants from the
AVI CHAI Foundation a Jewish
philanthropy founded by
Sanford Bernstein a well-known successful investor who had himself become a newly
Modern Orthodox Baal teshuva (a returnee to Orthodox observance) and who had wanted to further the cause of outreach to alienated and assimilated Jews world-wide.
Rabbi Buchwald also lectures across the
United States, and overseas.
